Musical Centering for Writing Melodies

There are many effective ways to write a melody, and it’s worth experimenting with different approaches as a regular part of your songwriting practice.

Today we’re going to try out “musical centering”, a way of putting yourself in touch with the center of your song. From this center, you will gradually explore the twists and turns of your melodic options.

Making space for concentration

It’s going to take concentration to do this exercise well. So it’s worth discussing a couple of ways to make space for that kind of focus.

In an ideal world, you have a physical space dedicated to songwriting where you can immediately shift into “songwriting mode”. But even if you have such a designated space, you might use it for other purposes as well, and sometimes this can be distracting.

It’s worth establishing a routine or ritual that signals you’ve left ordinary life behind for the moment. You’ll have to experiment until you find something that works for you.

The idea is to decisively enter a new, creative state.

Learning how to meditate↗(opens in a new tab) could be valuable. It gives you one powerful way to break away from the flow of your normal thoughts and habits.

But it could really be as simple as arranging your instruments, notebooks, and other tools.

And keep in mind that the musical centering exercise we’re trying today can serve this purpose all on its own.

Variation 1: Grounding yourself in a single note

Ok, you’ve entered a creative state and your songwriting session has clearly begun. Time to try out the musical centering exercise.

It can be useful to record this exercise in case you come up with something you don’t want to lose along the way. But it’s not necessary.

We’re going to begin by writing a vocal melody without an instrument.

Choose your note

The first step is to find a single note that you want to focus on. It doesn’t matter how you choose it.

Maybe you just start humming or singing nonsense until you land on a note that feels right. Or maybe you just start somewhere, anywhere.

Once you have your note, start humming it continuously. It’s ok (and necessary!) to take breaths, but keep concentrating on the note.

How does it feel? What sensations or images come to mind? Are you pulled in any directions? Are you imagining other sounds or melodies?

All the while, keep humming that single note. This is the center of your song.

Explore the neighborhood

Now that you are grounded in a single note, it’s time to start exploring. As you explore, keep returning to your “ground note”.

You can start by moving only momentarily to another note and then immediately back again. See if any of these sudden departures resonate with you somehow.

Now try constructing little motifs. Still focused on your ground note, hum two notes before returning again. Explore as many combinations as you can.

Try three notes now (don’t worry if you’re repeating the same ones more than once). Pay attention to the ones that work best and revisit them, varying them each time.

I’m using these note counts as a way to describe the exercise, but don’t worry about keeping count. Your approach should be intuitive, not analytic.

If your early explorations were in small melodic steps, try bigger skips or leaps now. But keep returning to that ground note, perhaps dwelling on it for a while from time to time.

Shift from humming to singing

There should come a point where clearer melodies start to form in your mind.

This is the time to stop humming and start singing.

The words you sing don’t matter. They can be nonsense, or pre-written lyrics, or the words on an open page of a book.

Focus on the melody.

At this point, you can choose whether to keep returning to your ground note or just leave it behind. Do whatever feels right.

Once you land on a melody you like, it’s time to record it.

The advantage of recording the whole exercise is that you don’t have to break your flow at this point. The disadvantage is that you’ll have to go through a long recording later!

Doing the vocal exercises anywhere

Earlier, I mentioned the value of writing your songs in a dedicated space. This is true for your daily songwriting practice, but you shouldn’t view it as a limitation.

You can write songs anywhere.

When I look back at my favorite songs over many years of writing, I can think of numerous places they were conceived. On the edge of a bed, taking a long walk, sitting on a subway, riding a bike, and the list goes on and on.

You might be relieved to know that I wasn’t literally singing on the subway. With enough experience, you can write melodies in your head, and even perform the kinds of exercises described in this post.

This is a pretty powerful thing. And if you’re not there yet, this kind of exercise can help you get there.

But even if you can’t write on subways or planes, you can definitely try it on a walk or a bike ride.

Variation 2: Grounding yourself in a single chord

The next variation we’ll consider centers around playing a single chord on an instrument.

Begin by choosing a chord. It can be any chord, but if you’re starting out, I recommend a major or minor triad (like the C major chord or A minor chord).

Now play this chord over and over. You can try different rhythms or arpeggios, but the main thing is to play it long enough that you are absorbed into its sound.

Once you’re there, it’s time to start humming (or singing).

The first thing to do is find a single note that feels right over the chord. Whether intentionally or not, there’s a good chance you’ll land on the root note of the chord.

Now you follow the same humming and singing process you did when grounding yourself in a single note (as described above).

Even though you’re only playing one chord, you should be able to discover countless melodic ideas this way.

Variation 3: Grounding yourself in a chord progression

It’s time for our last variation. This time, we’re going to find the center of a chord progression.

You can start by writing a progression from scratch, you can pick one from a list↗(opens in a new tab), or you can use one you’ve already written.

If you’ve had trouble writing a melody over a chord progression you like, this could be a good way to break through.

Play the chord progression over and over. Make sure you’re locked into it before moving on.

Find your ground note

Now start humming and find that single note that feels right. This time, you’ll hear the meaning of the note shift as your chords change.

No matter what, keep humming it.

What’s interesting about this variation is that you might start to hear melodies emerge as the notes in the chords change around your ground note.

Start exploring, either by following the single note exercise above or by following the emerging melodies you hear against the chords.

Next Steps

Use this exercise to ground yourself in the space of writing songs. Use it to create new melodies from scratch. And use it to write melodies over chord progressions you’ve written.

I recommend integrating this exercise in all its variations into your regular songwriting practice.

And of course, you can always think up your own exercises that take these ideas in totally new directions.